1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and an article of manufacture for a firmware image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems include the capability to update firmware in connected hardware devices. Such firmware updates for hardware devices may be needed for various reasons, including fixing defects with an existing version of the firmware, adding additional functions to an existing version of the firmware, etc.
Prior art firmware updates may be targeted to a specific type of hardware device of a computer system. A firmware utility on a host computer may read a firmware image for a type of hardware device by various means, including downloading the firmware image via a network, reading the firmware image stored on fixed media such as a floppy diskette, CD-ROM, etc. The firmware utility may then install the firmware image on a hardware device coupled to the host computer. For example, a particular firmware utility may download the firmware image for a specific type of ethernet network interface card and install the firmware image on an ethernet network interface card coupled to the computer system.
Prior art utilities that download and install firmware are designed to update the firmware of a specific type of hardware device. Prior art firmware utilities cannot easily be enhanced to support firmware updates onto a new hardware device, particularly when the new hardware device is different (such as a device from a different vendor or a different type of device) from the hardware device for which the firmware utility is designed.
Hence, there is a need in the art to provide improved techniques for updating firmware of hardware devices.